Monday, March 31, 2008

Today the SF/East Bay cycling community sends home a good man. Steve, appreciated by many, will be missed by all who knew him. It was our pleasure to ride your wake, big man! May you rest in peace./JCP.S. With so much turmoil in the world, it is important to recognize those who take the chance to reach out to others with a positive outlook. Look around you, let them know. Peace.P.S.S. I just returned from Steve's funeral and boy did he have a way with the ladies! All colors, shapes, and sizes coming out of the woodwork, and happy to have been in the Steve fan club. Some guys have it. Amazing. BTW, his last name, Boutte, is pronounced boo-tay - should have figured.

Over the weekend, the NYT offered an article on the growing mixed-race population of the US, including the varying contexts in which they find themselves. For them the two goals of racism can be shorted-circuited, the first being to control an ‘out’ group behavior, the second to control one’s ‘in’ group. Of course, Barack Obama is the leading example of how individuals of mixed race can navigate the sometimes treacherous racial seas.

People of mixed race, especially those who are black and white, get to possess both perspectives, if they choose, without having to represent their ‘loyalty’. It is this loyalty that often gets us into situations where we are defending something that is otherwise indefensible. Mixed-raced individuals have the built-in advantage of motivation to see the ‘other’ point of view, even if they more strongly identify with one side of their ethnicity.

The ability to walk in the other person’s shoes is a long-held advantage in resolving conflict, but, not just external conflict. These individuals may more easily cherry-pick the best of each part of their ethnicity for reduction or assimilation. By example, a good athlete may also study hard, minus the accusation of ‘acting white’. In truth, black-white admixtures, in the US, are probably more racially white than black when we toss their DNA under a scope. Recall that since most blacks are on average 17% white, via genetics, intermarriage with a person who is on average 97% white will produce off-spring that are 57% white.

Lastly, if a mixed-race individual indentifies ethnically with the minority, but across a spectrum politically, and assimilates the leading behaviors of the majority, the trust of both (all) groups is possible. This is not only a strategy for political success, but success in school, on the job, and in the neighborhood. Obama’s rise, thus far, is more instructive than we might think.

Thursday, March 27, 2008

Some people are pissed about LeBron and Gisele together on the cover of Vogue. Now it is not hard to see the cinematic symbolism of big dark scary LeBron (which he is) and wispy, fair and pretty Gisele (which she is). Does it play off stereotypes? Yes. Are there ‘kernels’ of truth supporting those stereotypes? Yes. Does it create sexual/racial tension? Yes. Does tension sell? Hell Yes. Is it in good taste? Perhaps not. Is it racist? Well, yeah - but hold on a minute. I am proposing that some race-plays are reasonable, in context. In fact, drawing boundaries of acceptability for things racial is good for us, as it gives us room to recognize race without threat of insta-banishment to the dungeon of political-incorrectness.

James C. Collier

Addendum HatTip to the Field Negro and his buddy Tom. The only difference, unlike Fay Wray, Gisele looks ready to party.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Ward Connerly, and the whites he fights to protect, claim there is no need for affirmative action. I disagree. What there is no need for is an affirmative action that hurts blacks (and whites), while pretending to help the former, including today’s AA. According to Harvard’s Jennifer Hochschild, in “The Skin Color Paradox and the American Racial Order”(2007), for no reason other than pervasive skin-tone bias, light-skin blacks, like Connerly, continue their historical and unfair benefit in education, employment, and income, while he focuses us on polarizing AA battles. What we need is to stop helping cloaked opportunists, like Connerly, who want to vaporize, rather than fix, the gate of opportunity behind them - a gate that should be available to everyone willing to bust their hind parts in a book.

Monday, March 24, 2008

Little boys and girls are spontaneously sexist without prodding. They each think the other is yucky, mostly based on their particular likes and dislikes, snakes, spiders, dolls, and the like. It is less clear that those same children are naturally racist, as societal influence comes early and ugly and shows in adult ways, even from the mouths of babes.

Overtime, children, especially little boys, learn not to be sexist - hopefully. They may learn this from their mothers (fathers) and sisters (brothers), or teachers, or from a future heart-throb in homeroom, but somehow they learn some degree of it if they are lucky. But what about racism? There is no carrot to match the stick for when a kid says something either spontaneous or contrived of a racial nature- and this is the rub.

While sexism hurts us, especially females, as we see in studies, court judgments, and recurring dateless weekends (for men), the accusation still leaves recovery room for the little boy or girl in all of us, who learned or did not learn the right and wrong way to think about and treat those of the other sex. But to be accused of sexism is not close to racism, even though the accumulated loss could be argued as much greater. When we are labeled sexist, we accept it, or reject it, sometimes with punishment, sometimes not. But we always move on with some sort of secret resolve to do better or end up alone, or worse, miserable.

Perhaps sexism can teach us how better to approach racism. Racism too can be spontaneous or premeditated. It can prick us, or it can be fatal. But it has always existed from the time when the earliest Africans said goodbye to their brothers, at the start of their global walk-about, only to return with white skin, an attitude, and superior technology.

With racism (as with sexism) we have laws to forbid its digression, and these laws should be respected and enforced. But perhaps we should consider its organic nature and accept that much of the drama around it is of little benefit, except to make more, or less, of it than is probably deserved.

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Barack Obama has suffered some loss of support among whites in light of his pastor's, Rev. Wright's, comments. Some see this as unfair, but not me. I recall that when Hillary's philandering husband was 'helping' her awhile back and she was dropping in the polls, I was thinking, GO BILL! (as I believed his racism was helping Obama). The knife often cuts both ways.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Many people are pointing to ‘white guilt’, as the explanation for the phenomenal rise of Barack Obama in the presidential race. It goes that supporting Obama somehow makes some whites feel better about themselves, relative to their stations and the history of this country’s mistreatment of blacks. Author Shelby Steele has been, perhaps, the most vocal of those who would say Barack is sneaking in the white-guilt door, and of course Steele conveniently has a whole book on the subject.

It would seem that guilt, as a motivator deserves a little better treatment than the simple ‘either or’ variety. It may also be that whites either feel guilty or, better yet, they may feel bad about being made to feel guilty. Which is it? I argue that their behavior is more the earnest attempt to eliminate the traditional guilt model for looking at blacks, rather than the mere reduction of guilt feelings. The first is laudable, the second is not.

The underlying guilt-model originates from church, where doctrine tells us to confess our sins and all will be forgiven. The emphasis is on contrition and forgiveness, with a dose of ‘do not do that again’ for the future. Mr. Shelby would say this model applies to present sins, rather than those past, and therefore white acceptance reflects a slight-of-hand manipulation. He would be right, if only the conversation was about Reverend's Jackson, or Sharpton, running for office.

However, there is also the behavior that looks for solutions among tired ruble, in this case a leader, who moves us away from doing some bastard-version of good for assumed reasons of guilt. Yes, the past influences all plights, but should the behavior of kin require the re-enlistment of each generation's pound-of-flesh, as payment for those sins? Some voters are saying no. But in doing so they are not saying no to the plight of others, just to guilt as the motivator for getting their attention and support.

Obama seems to represent an option, in some minds, for moving towards better solutions, minus the scarlet letter if your skin happens to be white today. Good for him, and us.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

To quote entertainer Chris Rock, ‘it’s not right, but I understand it’. On the heels of the recent senseless high-media profile murders of whites by black men in North Carolina and Alabama, and with the overwhelming backdrop of black men murdering their own in genocide-like numbers (57 so far this year in the Field Negro’s ‘Killadelphia’), it is time to openly revise our notions of racism – what we expect and what is acceptable.

In the past, the label of racist was reserved for anybody, black or white, who used superficial distinctions of race in relating to groups or individuals. The key was not whether the distinction, usually negative, was indicative of anything valuable, but rather that race, or ethnic, distinction was made at all. Except for personal preferences, like socializing and going to church, race-based discrimination was, by definition, off-limits, out-of-bounds - morally, ethically, and legally, indecent.

Now let’s jump over to today’s ‘real’ world. Any American who is not afraid of black men on some level is simply not thinking straight. Also, remember that fear is an emotional response, so do not think about it too much, it is what it is. I’m afraid, and I AM a tall-ass black man, and one who studied the martial arts for fun. I am afraid for me, my family, my friends, my acquaintances, and lastly for anyone, male or female, white, black or green, who might statistically find themselves in the presence of a black male at the ‘wrong place and wrong time’. Call me whatever you like, I don’t give a Freak, I’m talking about life and death!

So when people make distinctions about blacks and crime, especially violent crime and murder, I no longer immediately jump onto the offensive. Yes, these comments sound racist to me, and piss me off if I think about them too much. But the real question is if the behavior behind them resembles me in it's prudence, and too often it does. I avoid unfamiliar gatherings of black males. I check out how black men present themselves and avoid those that feel dangerous. I also judge black men by their dress and manner, especially those wearing inmate clothing, all in an attempt to keep my life. This method is far from perfect, but it’s all I have, so I use it. If this profiling makes me racist in some way, and I believe it does, so be it. Better to err on the side of staying alive.

For me today’s racism is not about inferiority, but also about mortality. If black males do not want to be racially profiled as life threatening, they need to stop being a danger. And I need to see this in the stats, not out of somebody's mouth. It is as simple as that. In the meantime, I watch myself - it’s not right, but you need to understand.

James C. Collier

Post Scriptum/Addendum: From the DOJ Bureau of Justice Statistics...READ MORE ACTING WHITE...

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

I am a fan of Roland Fryer, Harvard economics wunderkind. I have read and utilized his work and believe he cares about the plight of blacks as much as anyone, including me. Even so, like most economist, his professional hammer swings a particular way, and this creates an issue when considering his current experiment with the NYC schools. Paying black kids for good grades may have laboratory merit, but it also has very distracting practical implications on his subjects and kids in general.

Regardless of whether kids are motivated by the desire to purchase video games or supplement food on their dinner table, proving that they respond to short-term wants or necessities does little more than retrace known human behavior dynamics. The trick is not proving short-term pain vs. pleasure influence, but rather the long-term factors and implementations that result in happy and productive lives.

As a kid, I was fortunate to have enough food to eat, but like many of the NYC kids I wanted to buy things too, cool things. But with only odd-job and allowance money, I had to wrestle my dreams into a connection with my long-term efforts. I learned to believe that if I worked hard in school that I would be rewarded with a chance for a good job, along with it the opportunity to have whatever I wanted, within reason of course. On the upside, I did not negotiate my day-to-day behavior with my parents or teachers for some immediate reward, this is not how life works. My short-term motivation was reserved for steering clear of the parental 'belt'.

Professor Fryer’s experiment sacrifices the desperate education kids need for long-term dreams, patience, and perseverance, along with academics. When the prize money is not there, for whatever reason, will the kids continue to apply themselves with vigor? Why would they? More reasonably, the response would be some form of protest against the ‘unfairness’ of having their motivation taken away, whether aimed at the school or simply their parents. At this point we will know the full and sad extent of this experiment.

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